Update: Brian Flores has been hired as senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers
The NFL world got quite a shock when it was revealed that former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores was suing the NFL, specifically naming the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos.
The lawsuit alleges racism in the hiring process and accuses Miami Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross of trying to tank games for a better draft position, reportedly offering Flores $100,000 for each game that he lost on purpose. Flores refused.
The focus of the lawsuit though are the problems that have surfaced in the hiring process.
In 2003, the NFL established the Rooney Rule, named after former Steelers owner Dan Rooney. The rule states that teams must interview a person of color for head coaching or senior positions within the front office. Flores claims that this rule was violated multiple times in his time being interviewed for coaching jobs.
Brian Flores was fired from the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 10, following a season in which the Dolphins went 9-8, just barely missing out on the playoffs. The season wasn’t even as rocky as the record alludes to. The Dolphins finished the season on an incredibly high note, going 8-1 to finish the year.
The reason for Flores’ firing was murky, reportedly it came down to front office disagreements, which now seem to stem from ownership’s alleged desire to lose on purpose.
Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin temporarily stood alone as the only person of color in a head coach position, employed by the team who helped establish the Rooney Rule, and who’s owner the rule is named after.
With the NFL hiring cycle complete, two new POC head coaches have been hired. The Dolphins replaced Flores with Mike McDaniel, who is biracial, and the Texans hired Lovie Smith, a black head coach who notably was the head coach at the University of Illinois and took the Chicago Bears to the superbowl earlier in his career.
It has since become expected that Flores will be now adding the Houston Texans to the lawsuit. It seems clear now that the only reason that the Texans didn’t go through with Flores as their coach is because of the lawsuit.
It is speculated that the Texans wanted to hire former quarterback Josh McCown for the job, but the backlash of hiring someone with no coaching experience seemingly led them away from this decision. Then once Flores’ lawsuit was announced it became clear that there was no way they would go through with him for the job. They then landed on internal candidate Lovie Smith at the last minute.
Since his firing Flores had remained in contention for a couple of the head coaching positions that were available, and currently remains a finalist for the Texans job despite the lawsuit, but the legitimacy of their interest is debatable.
One of the jobs that Flores interviewed for was the New York Giants. In the lawsuit, Flores claims that he was put through a sham interview to satisfy the Rooney Rule after the Giants had already hired Brian Daboll to be their next head coach.
Flores’ main evidence comes in the form of texts from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick in which Belichick seems to congratulate him on getting hired by the Giants before Flores even interviewed.
In the texts, Flores asked Belichick if he meant to be messaging Daboll instead of himself. Belichick responded that he made a mistake and apologized. In other words, Belichick texted the wrong Brian and exposed the fact that the Giants had already hired Daboll before they even interviewed Flores.
In addition to naming the Giants, Flores also mentions the Denver Broncos claiming they interviewed him with no intention of hiring him.
The lawsuit says “Broncos’ then-General Manager, John Elway, President, and Chief Executive Officer Joe Ellis and others, showed up an hour late to the interview. They looked completely disheveled, and it was obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before.”
Coaches and players have come out supporting both sides of Flores’ lawsuit. Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson went to Twitter to claim something similar happened with his time in Cleveland, which was famous for the Browns going 0-16 one season.
Saying how much he was paid to lose games, “Trust me it was a good number.”
Jackson has since backtracked on this statement, now saying that while he was never given bonuses to lose games, it was clear that ownership was not putting him in a position to win.
Jason McCourty, who was a member of that Browns team, backed up Jackson. He claimed there was no way the Browns were trying to win during that season.
Current Steelers secondary coach Teryl Austin backs up Flores’ claims of sham interviews, saying that he has also been put through them. Austin cites his interview with his former employer, the Detroit Lions, in 2017.
The Lions had fired Jim Caldwell and Austin was the defensive coordinator for the team. Reportedly his interview was a sham and the Lions had already made up their mind to hire Matt Patricia.
The NFL and every team named in Flores’ lawsuit has quickly denied the claims made against them, but with the evidence seemingly mounting on both sides of Flores’ case, there is likely much more to uncover.
After initially stating that Flore’s claims were made without merit the NFL has seemingly softened their stance after a few days.
A new memo from commissioner Roger Goodell says that the league will “examine all policies, guidelines, and initiatives relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The league has continued to backtrack away from their immediate denial statement, promising a severe punishment to Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, including potentially him losing ownership of the team.
One thing that this suit has made abundantly clear is that the Rooney Rule, while good intentioned, is not working in its current form, and more changes need to be made.
